The Quiet Abolition of Common Law : UKIP Daily

The UK government is crowing that it is raising more revenue than ever via the increased use and sophistication of speed cameras. Unlike their earlier models, these rapacious digital beauties can happily snap cars all day long, every day, to infinity and beyond! They are heartless, ugly contraptions, and many people hate them and the people who install and operate them. The complaints we’re hearing in the UK about this new and improved state surveillance are apt and predictable: the cameras are cash cows, not public safety devices; they are inaccurate; they don’t cut down on traffic accidents. But these complaints don’t address the bigger picture, which is that speeding, per se, is a victimless “crime”; it makes no difference to anyone in the world how fast I drive, so long as I don’t do them or their property any harm. So, why am I giving money to the “government” for permission to do it? It is this premise — that an unlawful act is uniquely the harming of one identifiable natural (as opposed to corporate) person or their property by another identifiable natural person — that underpins Common Law, which is followed, to one degree or another, across the globe. And, when that complaint of harm […]